troublesome and disagreeable and very unexpected, and I'm rather
afraid you won't like it. But we've plenty of time to talk about it.
I'm at home to nobody else--It was really unkind of you to come
back in a hurry! Besides, it's against your principles. You wouldn't
have done that if I had been a man."

"A man would have said just what he meant," replied Dyce, smiling at
her with kindly superiority. "He wouldn't have put me in doubt."

"No, no! But did I really write like that? I thought it was just a
plain little business-like note--indeed I did! It will be a lesson
to me--indeed it will! And how did you find your people? All well,
I hope?"

"Well in one way; in another--but I'll tell you about that
presently."

Dyce had known Mrs. Woolstan for about a couple of years; it was in
the second twelvemonth of their acquaintance that he matured his
method with regard to women, and since then he had not only
practised it freely, but had often discussed it, with her. Iris gave
the method her entire approval, and hailed it as the beginning of a
new era for her sex. She imagined that her own demeanour was no less
direct and unconstrained than that of the philosopher himself; in
reality, the difference was considerable. Though several years older
than Dyce--her age being thirty-four--she showed nothing of the
seniority in her manner towards him, which, for all its
impulsiveness, had a noticeable deference, at moments something of
subdued homage.